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April 11, 2017

How Starting a Blog Can Skyrocket Your Etsy Business

*Affiliate links are included in this post.

Are you an Etsy seller looking for ways to help your business succeed?

A dedicated website / blog can do wonders for your Etsy business! It can lead to increased traffic to your Etsy shop and in turn, more sales for you!

In this post, find out exactly why it’s a no brainer to have a WordPress blog set up alongside your Etsy shop – and how to set one up really quickly for very little cost.

7 great reasons for Etsy Sellers to start a blog!

1. A blog will enable you to grow your fan base

Your own dedicated blog will become another place to grow a following for your handmade products. On a blog, you can share heaps of information about your Etsy business – you’ll have the freedom to write as much or as little as you like – unlike the limited space you’re allocated as part of an Etsy listing or on your shop profile.

Importantly though, blogs allow for interaction between you and your customers. You can have a comments section at the bottom of every post that you publish where your readers can give you their feedback on your latest goods and request orders!

Build an email subscriber list easily from your blog

Any blogger will tell you that their email list is worth its weight in gold – and it really is. Why? A subscriber list consists of an amazing group of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say or offer! As an Etsy seller, you’ll know how crucial it is to attract and retain people who are interested in your handmade products, right?

With a blog, you can capture the email addresses of people who want to find out more about your offering. Take a look at the subscription box at the top of my blog for example. This is how I encourage new readers to input their email addresses and sign up to my weekly craft related newsletter.

You can do the same to let your followers know about new products in your Etsy Shop or new posts on your blog. It’s so easy to set up!

Simply set up an account with Mailchimp or Aweber, these are both email marketing platforms. I use MailChimp because it’s free for your first 2000 subscribers. When your blog is up and running, you can download a plugin for your website that connects a subscribe box to your Mailchimp account and you’re done!

Link your social media profiles to your blog

Yes, there’s a space to add social media profile links within your Etsy profile. But they’re a bit hard to find, unless your followers are of the determined and patient variety. You can easily link your social media profiles to the homepage of your blog by installing a WordPress plugin (see mine at the top right of the navigation bar).

There are plenty of plugins to choose from, I use Simple Social Icons which is compatible with my blog’s theme (design). It’s just a matter of downloading and installing it your blog (a few clicks of the mouse) and then inputting the URLS of your social media profiles.

Make it easy for potential customers to connect with you by sticking your social media profiles right in front of them – your blog is a great place to do this! You can also add widgets to your blog, for example in the sidebar, that will display your latest tweets, posts or pins.

2. Get found in Google easier with a blog

You can optimise your Etsy shop to help it appear in search engine results, but in addition, having a dedicated website / blog will help more people to find you, it’s as simple as that. You can use keywords relevant to your handmade business within blog content and headings to help with search engine rankings.

Google loves fresh content, so if you keep your blog regularly updated say once or twice a week, this could lead to higher rankings.

3. Use your blog to explain your handmade business

Everyone loves a good story and handmade buyers are no different. In fact, knowing the history and passion behind a product can sometimes be the reason why people buy handmade goods in the first place.

Use your blog to show photos of your workstation / craft areas and different stages of the creative process that you go through (without giving too much away of course). Tell product stories – explain what inspires you and what makes you see an idea through from concept to fruition.

Let your readers know about upcoming sales that you’ll be having and show off your latest materials. All these things will be of interest to your fans.

4. Build a brand identity through your blog

A great logo and visual identity is important for any business, but a great brand is more than that. A successful brand is all about the way that your followers perceive your business.

By continuously writing about and showcasing your work, you can begin to build your own brand identity – one that your followers will recognise and associate with your products.

5. Sell your handmade products directly from your blog

It’s really easy to turn your blog into an online shop. Some WordPress themes (designs) come with a functional online shop page. Mine does actually although I’ve switched it off for now until I have more products to sell.

(In case you were wondering, my blog theme is built on Genesis and is “Pretty Happy” from Pretty Darn Cute).

Established Etsy sellers can use WooCommerce or Shopify (these are both free WordPress plugins) with your WordPress blog to turn it into an ecommerce website.

The benefit of selling from your website directly is that there are no fees to eat into your profits! (And there’s nothing to stop you from still selling on Etsy too.)

You can also use Etsy Shop WordPress plugins that will display your Etsy products on posts and pages – like this free one or simply add a link to your Etsy Shop from your blog (which is good for search engine optimisation anyway).

6. Use affiliate links to Etsy from your blog

Etsy sellers can also sign up to be an Etsy affiliate and that means you can link to your own products (and others if you like) from your blog using an affiliate link. When someone makes a purchase through your affiliate link, you’ll get paid a small commission from Etsy.

7. Bonus! Use your blog to make even more money!

If you’re looking to skyrocket your Etsy business, using a blog for additional promotion and to grow a loyal following will definitely help you do this. But did you know that you can use your blog to make passive income on the side of your Etsy business?

Becoming an affiliate for products that your followers would be interested in (check out the thousands of affiliate programs on awin.com).

Creating your own digital products (eBooks, patterns, tutorials) and selling them through your blog. You can also sell eBooks through Amazon via the Kindle Direct Publishing (KPD) platform and you can sell patterns through Craftsy or Etsy too.

As you can see, blogging can be very rewarding for several reasons!

Set up your blog within an hour – for next to no cost!

I use WordPress for my own blog and would highly recommend it! I’ve recently written a detailed guide on how to set up a blog in 7 steps using WordPress and Bluehost – see it here.

To briefly explain, WordPress is a free platform on which you can build a blog or website and Bluehost is a web hosting provider – a place where your website files are stored in the “cloud”. Like a big server, basically!

There are lots of web hosting providers around but I’d always recommend Bluehost for beginners as they operate worldwide and you can also get your domain (web address) free of charge when you sign up.

Bluehost have an offer on right now where you can get their starting hosting package for just $2.95 per month!

2. Choose a free domain and download WordPress as part of the sign up process – there’s an automated route you can choose for easy set up.

3. Choose a theme for your website by going to “Appearance” and “Themes” within your WordPress dashboard. Click on “Add new” and choose from the many free themes available – see the screenshot of my WordPress dashboard below:

You can of course purchase a premium theme like I’ve done. Premium themes do offer more functionality and are easily customisable so they are worth considering. However, don’t stress too much about themes as you can always switch yours later if you want to!

4. Start to publish content for your blog. Simply click on “Add New” under the posts section and begin typing! You can add images by clicking on “Add Media” and when you’re ready, click on “Publish” to make your post live on your blog.

Don’t forget to check out my detailed blogging guide as it covers lots of other things, such as different pages you might want to set up, how to find pretty images for your blog and more detail on making money from your site too!

Don’t delay – start your blog today!

You might be wondering how you’ll ever find time to blog as well as run your Etsy business (and everything else you do in your life). Blogging doesn’t have to take up that much time though – you can start with just an hour a week!

The chances are that you’ll love blogging – and seeing the results that blogging can bring. A blog is such a great (low cost) marketing tool!

Have questions about blogging? Feel free to leave a comment or get in touch and I’ll do my best to help! You can also subscribe to my “Blogging Tips” newsletter via the box below to receive details of my best blogging strategies from time to time.

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*Affiliate links are contained in this post. This means that I will receive a small commission should you decide to purchase anything through one of my links, at no cost to you. I only ever recommend products that I think are great and any commissions received help me to keep this site up and running! Thanks for using my links if you are able to!

*Image source – Thanks to Keren at Free Pretty Things for You for allowing me to use her digital papers to create the top and bottom graphics in this post!

Reader Interactions

Comments

Hey Hayley!
I am planning on starting my Etsy store and blog in the next few weeks. Would you happen to have any tips for someone getting started in both platforms. It’s exciting and terrifying all at once!

Hi! I would concentrate on your Etsy store first and get some products listed. Then work on your blog. Once you have around 10 posts (each linking back to your Etsy store, you can start to really promote your content and attract visitors. Is there anything in particular you need tips on? I’ll try my best to help!

This is info I definitely needed. I originally wanted to start an etsy store but knew I also wanted to do a blog at some point. However, it seems more financially feasible for me right now to start my blog first and can always update with links later, but after reading your post above, I’m second guessing myself. What you mentioned about linking, etc is exactly how I envisioned them working together. What I am struggling with is a name. My blog will not be strictly about crafts so do I need to have the same name for both my etsy store and blog have the same name?

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